University of Sulaymaniyah

College of languages/English department

Advanced syntax
Supervised by Dr. Bekhal Latif
Sazgar ali
Relative clause

A relative clause is a clause that is used to add more information to a sentence and
to modify a noun or noun phrase by using some grammatical term that states the relative
clause refers to the noun or the noun phrase that has been mentioned in the sentence. The
use of a relative clause is necessary to understand the meaning of a sentence completely.
A special class of pronouns is used to introduce relative clauses in a sentence this
special class is called relative pronouns such as (who, which, that, etc.….). Each relative
pronoun is used in a specific way with specific conditions. The relative pronoun “who”
refers to a noun that belongs to people, e.g., “the woman who called you has just left”
here the relative pronoun modifies the noun before it which is “the woman” and it refers
to people. The relative pronoun “whom” also refers to people and it is the object of the
verb, e.g. “the girl whom I taught” here the relative pronoun refers to people and it can be
left out since there are two different subjects in the main clause and the defining clause.
The relative pronoun “whose” also refers to people not to things but this relative pronoun
is different from “who” because the relative pronoun “whose” shows possession, e.g.
“The story is about a student whose parents got divorced” in this sentence the relative
pronoun “whose” shows what the student possesses. The relative pronoun “that” is used
for both people and things. However, it is less formal than “who” or “which”, e.g., “she is
the girl that I met yesterday” or “it is the key that I lost yesterday”. The relative pronoun
“which” refers to the nouns that belong to things, not to people, e.g. “I lost the keys
which I bought yesterday” in this sentence “which” is used to refer to things (the keys)
and it is more formal than using the relative pronoun “that”. Besides the relative
pronouns, some relative adverbs are used to introduce relative clauses such as (when,
why, and where). The relative adverb “when” is used to talk about time, e.g. “The day
when we met him” here “when” modifies time “The day”. The relative adverb “why” is
used to talk about reasons behind something that happened, e.g. “The reason why I met
her”. The relative adverb “where” is used to talk about place, “The place where she met
him”.
There are many different types of relative clauses that are important to be known
to understand relative clause and to use it properly and academically. One of these types
is a bound relative clause, in this type of clause the relative clause is embedded in the
main clause. It refers to an element in the main clause and modifies it, for example in this
sentence “The student who dropped the pen couldn’t find it.” The relative clause refers to
the preceding element in the main sentence which is “The student”, to be more specific
the relative clause refers to the head of the sentence which is “student”. The bound
relative clause could also refer to an object in the main clause. In contrast to the bound
relative clause, there is a free relative clause, in this type of clause the free relative clause
does not refer to an element in the main clause but rather becomes an object for the main
verb of the sentence, e.g. “I submitted what you asked” a free relative clause is an object
for the verb “submitted”. This time is not a common type of relative clause but rather a
unique type since the relative pronoun that introduces the relative clause is “what”
because native English speakers use what or whatever while forming a free relative
clause. A restrictive relative or defining relative clause is another type of relative clause,
it is related to a bound relative clause. It is a bound relative clause that is necessary to
give meaning to the sentence and if it is omitted from the main clause the sentence won’t
be able to give its meaning, e.g. “Any student who studies hard won’t fail in this class.” If
the restrictive relative clause will be omitted then the meaning of the sentence will
change since the relative clause modifies the noun “student” and it is essential to give
meaning to the sentence. Non-restrictive or no -defining relative is another type of
relative clause, it is in contrast to a restrictive relative clause. This type of relative clause
is used to add extra information to the sentence, it can be omitted without affecting the
meaning of the sentence since it is not necessary for defining the noun phrase that
precedes non -a restrictive relative clause, e.g. “The final exam, which you must do, is
next Sunday.” It can easily be differentiated from restrictive relative clause since non-
restrictive clause does not only modify noun or noun phrase but it can also modify a
sentence such as in the sentence “she never does her homework, which I don’t like.”
Reduced relative clause is another type of relative clause which cannot be easily
recognized or it is more difficult than the other types of the relative clause. The relative
pronoun will be omitted when this type is used in a sent, e.g. “This is the man whom I
saw” will be reduced to “This is a man I saw”.
To conclude relative clauses can add more information to a sentence regardless
of whether they are necessary or not. They usually modify an element in the main
sentence and add more information about it. They are useful to make the listener
understand the meaning of a sentence.